The Joys of animal husbandry...
Was about to get out for a KAP session this arvo when this Border-Leicester Ram appears in my front yard. Coffee will have to wait, so I puts on the gumboots and try and herd him back up the driveway where I assume he came from. He started trotting back up the road - with me encouraging him - no problems, but then he decided, no, he wants to be with my ewes. Turns out this bloody ram must have been a hurdles champion. Over the fence and into the ewes. Poo. I have three main paddocks and one small ram paddock with the ram and two black pet sheep in it. In that paddock are my actual yards which we use for separating sheep and general handling needs. So, I run around and lock my ram and two black pet sheep up, then call all the ewes up for a feed into the ram paddock. The rogue ram comes along and I manage to get him into my yards by himself. Excellent. For about 20 seconds. He looks at the railings and says 'hey, I can jump this and off he goes. Hmmm... let's give it another try. So after a bit of to-ing and fro-ing, I get him back into the yards again. Sproing! Over the fence he goes. Well then, that's not going to work. So then I have to try and get all the ewes and their lambs out of my ram paddock and out into the main paddock and leave him in the ram paddock by himself....but with lots of room so hopefully he stays put. By this time, the best part of two hours has past but finally I have him separated. I know he can easily jump the fence if he tries, so I'll back off and give him room. Now, where the heck did he come from? Ring the neighbor at the back....nope. Neighbor at the side....nope. Neighbor down the road....nope Neighbor WAY down the road....nope. Anyone lost a ram? Meanwhile, my poor pets and ram are locked in the yards while this rogue wonders around in their space. He's got an ear tag and one of my neighbors has said he might be able to track down where the ram came from, so that will have to be my next step. That's if he stays put. All my sheep are fairly short and can't jump my yards or the fences. But this mongrel can so I'm not even sure I can hold him. So, that's what I did instead of kite aerial photography this afternoon. Great. (heavy sarcasm).
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